WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump warned Kim Jong-Un he has a “much bigger” nuclear button than the North Korean leader, as Washington dismissed the prospect of high-level talks between Pyongyang and Seoul.

Trump launched the highly personal missive on Twitter hours after his ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley described proposed dialogue between the two Koreas as a “band-aid” and said Washington would never accept a nuclear-armed Pyongyang.

Trump said: “North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.’ “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

The tweet was in reference to Kim’s annual New Year address in which he warned he has a “nuclear button” on his table, but sweetened his remarks by expressing an interest in dialogue and taking part in the Pyeongchang Games next month.

Inter-Korean hotline reopens

Meanwhile, North and South Korea on Wednesday reopened a cross-border hotline which had been shut down since 2016, forging ahead with peace overtures despite taunts from US President Donald Trump who said he has a “much bigger” nuclear button than Kim Jong-Un.

The hotline was restored at 0630 GMT after Seoul proposed high-level talks in response to an olive branch from the North’s leader, who has offered to send a team to next month’s Winter Olympics in the South.

“The phone conversation lasted 20 minutes,” a South Korean Unification Ministry official said, adding details were not known immediately.

Kim’s overtures to the South marked a rare softening in tone. Tensions have surged in recent months following a flurry of North Korean missile launches and its most powerful nuclear test yet.

Seoul responded with an offer to hold talks on Jan 9 — the first since 2015 — to discuss “matters of mutual interest” including the North’s Olympic participation.

US State Department spokesman Heather Nauert also warned that Kim “may be trying to drive a wedge of some sort between the two nations — between our nation and the Republic of Korea (South Korea)”.

But the tentative rapprochement seemed to be moving ahead on Wednesday, with Kim welcoming Seoul’s support for his overtures, according to Ri Son-gwon, the head of North Korea’s agency handling inter-Korean affairs.

Hotline ‘very significant’

The two countries, divided by a Demilitarised Zone since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, last held high-level talks in 2015 to try to ease tensions.

The hotline in the border truce village of Panmunjom remained operational until February 2016. It was shut down when relations worsened over a dispute involving the jointly operated and now closed Kaesong industrial complex.

Seoul welcomed Pyongyang’s decision to reopen the hotline as “very significant”.

Its President Moon Jae-In has long favoured engagement with the North, but the Trump administration insists the regime must give up its weapons drive before any negotiations can take place.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2018